Gasification systems have been used for power generation by converting biomass fuel sources into combustible gases that contain nearly all of the energy of the biomass. The gasification systems convert carbonaceous materials, such as coal, biomass, biofuel, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and petroluem, into charcoal, wood-oils, and tars using both combustion and pyrolysis with a controlled amount of oxygen or steam. The gasification systems produce syngas, which is used as a fuel within engines, such as internal combustion engines and turbine engines. Syngas may be combusted at higher temperatures than other fuels courses, thereby making internal combustion of syngas potentially more efficient than other fuel sources.
A challenging aspect of using gasification systems for power generation from waste fuel sources is efficiently producing power while handling the waste products developed within the systems. The highly efficient method of converting syngas to electric power is offset by power consumption in waste fuel preprocessing and gas cleaning. The gasification byproducts including tars must be filtered from the syngas before the syngas can be burned in an engine, otherwise, the life of the engine will be greatly shortened.
Gasification systems used for power generation systems typically have a large footprint, such as an acre or more, and are typically constructed on-site. As such, skilled tradesman are required to construct and often to operate such a gasification system, which limits the locale in which the conventional gasification systems may be constructed efficiently. The costs associated with constructing and operating conventional gasification systems in remote locales often outweighs the benefit of the power generated. Thus, a gasification system is needed that produces syngas efficiently with few contaminants and overcomes the challenges of remote site construction and operation.
Many conventional gasifiers include mechanical inlet closure systems configured to close an inlet of a reactor to prevent ingestion of air into the reactor to create the pyrolysis process rather than enable combustion of the fuel. While mechanical inlet closure systems are superior in sealing the reactor, such systems require that feedstock be provided to reactors in a batch process only after the reactor is brought offline and the mechanical inlet closure system is opened. Batch processes are typically time intensive. Thus, a need exists for a more efficient reactor closure system.